Various ramblings and musings on gardening, agriculture, food and related subjects.

Thursday, March 13, 2014

War and the garden - a century of nursery catalogues

I spent a productive day in the library at Wisley a few weeks ago, looking at old nursery catalogues. Having run a nursery myself many years ago, old catalogues have always fascinated me. They are also a very good way of mapping something which has also always interested me - how garden fashion has changed over time.This particular rummage was aimed at getting an overview of what perennials were available from the late 19th century onwards. I did not know quite what to expect and was in fact rather surprised.The pic above is from one of the most important perennial breeders of the early 20th century, Amos Perry.

A 1910 listing of grasses, from Perry's catalogue.

I was aware that a lot of early 20th
century cultivars have been lost and a few species too. I remember
looking through a book by Ernst Graf Silva Tarouca which belonged to
my friend Sabine Plenk in Vienna (published 1913?, in
Austria-Hungary, just a few years before that political unit was
consigned to the dustbin of history by some shots fired in Sarajevo).
There was Aster puniceus, no longer in cultivation, but something I
had collected seed from, a few years previously, from a swamp in the
Catskills in NY state. And now seeding all over my garden, which only
goes to show how even vigorously spreading plants can vanish.

I did not realise however just how much
we lost and have only recently re-gained. Not because of the First
World War but because of the Second. I write this as Britain is about
to start on a veritable orgy of commemoration for the 1914 war –
about which I feel distinctly unenthusiastic. It was such an
unspeakable disaster that led directly to the unmitigated horrors of
the 20th century, and in Britain was conducted with such
an orgy of hysterical nationalism and war-mongering that I feel I
would rather draw a veil over the whole shameful episode. The only
heroes for me are the conscientious objectors on both sides.

Anyway, back to the herbaceous border.
Trench warfare left the combatants' gardens (and their cities)
largely untouched. Nurseries, in Britain and Germany, held similar
ranges before and after the war. Although one does have to make
allowances for the all pre-war German names being changed to English
ones in Britain, and (I suspect but am not sure) the other way round
in Germany. The British royal family had to change their (German)
name too, so the plants were in good company.

Looking through catalogues from around
1890 to the 1930s, the range is truly extraordinary. There is that
feeling that 'there is nothing new under the sun'. So many of the
perennials and even grasses, we think of as 'new' were then
available. I was interested to see Baptisia, Vernonia and Astrantia,
all listed, all of which I thought of as post-1970s plants. However
catalogues of the time, particularly pre-First World War ones, are
dominated by a small group of perennials of which a great many
varieties were available: Michelmas daisies (Aster novae-angliae),
Penstemon and Delphinium for example. All of these are what we think
of as high-maintenance plants today. At the back of the catalogues of
the larger companies, like Amos Perry and Kelways, are the
'Miscellaneous Herbaceous Perennials'. This was clearly a minority
interest, but the range of plants looks almost entirely 'modern'.
What is missing is the range of cultivars we have now of many of
these.

Turning to the 1950s and 1960s, the
range has hugely diminished. It was not until the new generation of
nurseries that got going in the 1970s and 1980s (Beth Chatto,
Elizabeth Strangman in England etc.) do things begin to look up. What
happened?

The answer has to be the Second World
War, but also its aftermath. I remember the German garden maker and
nurseryman Peter Janke saying to me that he thought that German
gardening had never recovered from the war. Looking back at the
catalogues, books and magazines of even 1930s Germany, as the country
staggered into its apocalyptic crises, the health and vibrancy of the
gardening scene is very vivid. What struck me though, looking through
the British catalogues of the post-war era, was that perhaps British
gardening had suffered just as much.

Promoting British nurseries is nothing new - 1922 from Kelways.

Much of the German garden heritage
turned to ashes, the British to compost. Saturation bombing of
Germany by the Allies must have done much damage. In Britain however,
the commercial growing of ornamental plants was banned early on
(earlier than in Germany, I believe), wih prison sentences being
handed on to anyone selling flowers. 'Digging for Victory' saw many
ornamentals cast onto the compost heap or ploughed under.

The Second World War was followed by
the fifties, which by all accounts was a grey and dreary decade, one
of recovery and reconstruction, with little fun or luxury. A
particular aspect of the fifties in Europe was the idea of public
planning and public welfare, good progressive aspects in which the
running was often made by social democratic parties. The downside of
this was a rejection of heritage (think of all the country houses
demolished in Britain during this period) and a kind of what we would
now call dumbing-down – egalitarianism, not as equality of
self-expression, but as a lowest common denominator lifestyle forced
onto everyone. The decade of grey concrete, of philistine local
government and a desire to create a brave new world by denying any
merit in the past, was followed by more destruction of heritage in
the 1960s.

This came across strongly when talking
to a Swedish colleague recently – Sweden of course exemplified the
ideal of social democracy and community thinking particularly
strongly. Planting was, she said, “reduced to
a very functional style”. A time of major urban development saw a
strongly collectivist ethos prevail with landscape architects working
on public housing projects, parks and children's play areas using
only a limited range of plants; private gardening simply went out of
fashion, and designers lost interest in the domestic garden. Many
nurseries often stocked little more than conifers.

In
Britain, the need for physical reconstruction may have been much less
than in Germany, but garden culture was very unambitious. My recent
post about the 1950s Adam the Gardener series shows how widespread
knowledge of garden craft may have been, but there seems to have been
relatively little interest in new plants or conservation of garden
heritage. Many great gardens, even if their houses were not
demolished, sank into weed abandon. I remember my parents buying a
disused walled kitchen garden in 1962, where they built a house. It
had been part of the grounds of Shernfold Park in Sussex, the house
had been turned into offices and the garden a wilderness of vast
rhododendrons, magnolias and unkempt grass.

1957 saw the birth of the Hardy Plant
Society (as well as myself!). Looking back at a book about
perennials, written by one of its key founders, Alan Bloom, in that
year, it is possible to see that much of the pre-war plant selection
existed, but hardly anyone was actively propagating and selling it.
It was not until Beth Chatto and Alan Bloom started to ride the
consumer boom of the 1960s that gardening started to become
interesting again. Margery Fish and Vita Sackville West played a
great part too in encouraging more enlightened and ambitious
thinking. Shrubs recovered their diversity quicker than perennials.
When I started getting involved with gardening professionally, in the
late 1980s, perennials were limited in variety and generally only
from specialist nurseries. Much of the remarkable growth in our
nursery sector dates from this period and can be seen (in hindsight
at least) as the rebuilding of the range of perennials that were
available pre-1939.

What was lost, and are perhaps
unmourned, are the huge numbers of cultivars which early 20th
century catalogues listed. Mostly of labour-intensive plants, which
do not appeal to us much these days. The genepools are still in
cultivation of course, and in most cases massive genepools exist in
the wild, so if we did want to bring back hundreds of
penstemon/delphinium/etc we could do so.

********

If you like my blog, why not check out my e-books, which are round-ups of some writing I did for Hortus
magazine back in the early 2000s, along with an interview with the
amazing Beth Chatto. You can read them on Kindle, or Kindle packages for
smartphones or the computer. You can find them on my Amazon page here. You will also find my soap opera for gardeners - currently running at eight episodes.

12 comments:

Hallo Noel, I think you can read a little bit Dutch. There is a very good book on the history of the Dutch bulb cultivating company van Tubergen "the bulbs are best again" written by Kees Hoog a member of the van Tubergen clan. In the book you can find large export numbers of bulbs to the UK. Also a story on relations between Miss Ellen Ann Wilmot and the firm.isbn 978-90-8704-3780

I enjoyed this post very much. I too assumed that many of the perennials I enjoy growing were mid 20th century introductions which in hindsight makes little sense given the Victorians plant hunting and horticultural prowess

It is indeed surprising that there were so many grasses. I thought the fashion for grasses was modern. Fashion is plants is always interesting. I remember reading that here in Ontario, around 1914 there were over 100 varieties of verbenas (the bedding plants)! Or that in the 30s and 40s in Britain, ordinary geraniums (pelargonium) were not popular!

The main reason so many nurseries and consequently their stock of perennials were lost during WWII was because of food shortages. People needed to grow their own food. Garden history is full of stories of fields of perennials being plowed under to make room for growing vegetables. Many peonies especially were lost to history this way, not yet rediscovered. WWI, as you mentioned, was not fought on the home front and so agricultural and horticulture in UK were not dramatically affected, although this is not true in Belgium and France were the majority of the fighting too place. One very interesting piece of garden history from WWI is the creation of trench gardens.

Really enjoyed your article, Noel. It was interesting to see Vita Sackville-West get a mention. Although she never claimed to be a professional horticulturalist, she was massively influential in the gardening world particularly after the Second World War. Her lavish planting style at Sissinghurst and her column in the Observer encouraged the public to try new plants and to be bolder and more creative in their own gardens. Hopefully, Sissinghurst is still achieving that today. Helen (gardener, Sissinghurst)

Hi, I found this piece very interesting. I am writing from Australia where currently the main drivers in the loss of garden plant diversity are biosecurity agencies who on "full cost recovery" mode have priced nearly all small specialist nurseries out of the market and doing so have handed that trade to large vertically integrated companies who flog overseas PBR imports for a season, then on to the next "big thing".

About Me

Garden writer and researcher, lecturer and teacher, based in the England/Wales border region. An occasional designer of plantings for gardens and public spaces.Other interests, and subjects for occasional publication are agriculture, food politics and environmental issues. Chiefly known for promoting naturalistic and sustainable planting design, I am a believer in design and decision-making based on science and evidence – so I have not signed up to organic jihad. And - lot of globe-trotting doesn’t stop me gardening myself either!
(pic. credit Andrea Jones)

Two updates: one on the EU proposed legislation on plant cultivars, and the other on the perennial meadow at Hummelo. Mis...

COME STAY WITH US!

We are now doing Bed and Breakfast by arrangement, in the guest room of the Pavilion with a verandah overlooking the garden. Continental breakfast served in room. Complete privacy. 5 miles from the second-hand book town of Hay-on-Wye, on the Hereford Way and near Offa’s Dyke long distance footpaths. £60 per night. More info. and pictures here.

We also have a self-catering shepherd's hut with an attached outdoor kitchen area. Information here.

At home in the wild garden.

Research on Long term Plant Performance

Food Programme - Radio 4

Talking about the seeds behind our food

Followers

Visitors since 18. January.2010

Total Pageviews

Welcome to the garden....

This blog is a place for observations, thoughts and opinions that occur to me as a gardener, horticultural journalist, researcher and commentator on the garden and landscape scene. And sometimes on the food and agriculture scene too.... when, you should be warned, I sometimes express unfashionable thoughts.

Pages

Get a translation here with Google Translate

Online Garden School

Sign up for an online gardening course with MyGardenSchool. Find out more by clicking on the picture

PLANT SELECTION: LEARNING FROM NATURE

The first in a series of e-books I'm planning with My Garden School

I'm now doing e-books.

I am now publishing e-books through Amazon, for Kindle, smartphones, iPads etc. There are currently three available, two based on collections of writings for Hortus magazine, from the early 2000s, and one which is an interview with Beth Chatto. Click here for Amazon North America or Amazon UK.

En Francais.

Interview

In February I went to Switzerland to do a lecture for the Swiss Hardy Plant Society (rather quaintly called the Swiss Friends of Perennial Plants). Here is the original English version of an interview he did with me. (you can see German and French above). Merci à Xavier Allemann.